Program Description

Department chairs and academic administrators within colleges and schools of the health professions are faced with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. In addition to needing to be facile with strategies for planning, organizational leadership, resource and personnel management, and effective communication, they are faced daily with issues that require specific skills within the contexts of health care, higher education, science, and politics. These leaders must:

• manage multiple faculty models (e.g., clinician-educator, clinician-researcher, researcher-educator), be able to apply the accompanying myriad evaluation criteria, and nurture the careers of faculty members with diverse abilities and goals;
• oversee academic programs that integrate didactic and experiential teaching and learning to a degree not seen in many other academic programs;
• navigate the contemporary environment for clinical science and scholarship; and
• interact with individuals above them and below them in complex organizational structures.

The Development Program for Department Chairs and Academic Administrators in Colleges and Schools of the Health Professions is a five-day program designed to give these uniquely positioned managers and leaders the skills and confidence to effectively balance competing demands and priorities and manage diverse programs and people. The program focuses on three critical areas: academic management – managing people, programs, and resources to achieve specific education, practice, and research missions; optimizing key relationships within the organization and community; and nurturing the chair’s personal and professional development and success.

CAAMP 5-Day Agenda

	7:30-8:30 a.m.	Registration and breakfast
	8:30-8:45 a.m.	Welcome and overview
	8:45-10:30 a.m.	The Academic Manager’s Toolkit: Organizing for Success

Leading an academic unit or program requires a core set of management and leadership skills. Learn how to manage the myriad roles the department plays within the college, university, or academic health center by organizing to optimize resources and expertise. Participants will be asked to articulate their departments’ key strategic goals and roles and then will be guided through an analysis of their departmental structures and how and why they have evolved to their current form.

	10:30-10:50 a.m.	Break
	10:50-12:00 p.m.	The Academic Manager’s Toolkit, continued

With a detailed analysis of their departments’ current structure, participants will learn strategies for organizing faculty and staff to accomplish the strategic goals set for the department or unit. After a review of example organizational structures, including the use of vice chairs for defined functional areas, learn how to effectively use teams, committees, and work groups to accomplish the goals of the department.

	12:00-1:00 p.m.	Lunch
	1:00-3:00 p.m.	The Academic Manager’s Toolkit: Communicating Effectively through Negotiation

Foundational to an academic manager’s toolkit are communication skills that facilitate positive interpersonal relationships and behaviors that recognize and value the perspectives of others. In the complex environments in which department chairs and academic administrators work, the ability to effectively negotiate – for resources, to advance an agenda, to reach a strategic goal, to implement educational change – is critical to personal and organizational success. After reviewing the principles of negotiation and steps for defining and achieving desired outcomes, participants will complete a negotiation skills assessment and reflect on their personal strengths and areas for improvement. Case studies will be used to illustrate the application of negotiation strategies.

	3:00-3:30 p.m.	Break
	3:30-5:00 p.m.	The Academic Manager’s Toolkit: Communicating Effectively through Conflict Management

Participants will analyze common academic situations in which conflict arises, learn how to become less personally reactive, and explore through role-play exercises how specific conflict resolution tactics and communication strategies may be used to manage disagreements toward productive outcomes.

	5:00 p.m.	Adjourn
	6:00 p.m.	Reception

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	7:45-8:30 a.m.	Breakfast
	8:30-9:15 a.m.	Program Management: Overview

Participants will begin this session by listing and graphing the relationships among the myriad programs for which they have administrative responsibility, either solely or as a member of a larger leadership team. Several example academic health centers and specific departments within those centers will be used to illustrate the breadth of activity common in contemporary health professions education.

9:15 -10:00 a.m.

Academic Program Management: Accreditation

A department chair in a college or school of the health professions is often faced with managing more than one academic program – professional degree programs, graduate degree programs, residencies, and fellowships. Each of these programs is designed for a different purpose, engages learners at different levels of development, demands different types of faculty contribution and engagement, and requires knowledge of and adherence to different standards and criteria for accreditation. This session will serve as a primer on accreditation processes in health professions education.

	10:00-10:30 a.m.	Break
	10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.	Academic Program Management: Curricular Change

Having to function within two equally dynamic environments – higher education and health care – department chairs and academic administrators in colleges and schools of the health professions oversee programs that must undergo continuous change to remain valid. Leaders must be vigilant in assuring their academic programs produce graduates able to enter the workforce deemed competent by contemporary standards. However, leading curricular change in health professions education is not a simple task. Case studies from successful curricular change initiatives in specific health professions will form the basis for group discussion of factors that determine whether it is the right or wrong time for significant change in a particular health profession or within a particular university’s environment.

	12:15-1:15 p.m.	Lunch
	1:00-3:00 p.m.	Management of Research and Scholarship Programs

This session will focus on the unique challenges associated with advancing the research and scholarship missions within colleges and schools of the health professions. Discussion will focus on issues related to the integration of research with clinical patient care responsibilities; opportunities afforded by the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, including the emerging field of clinical and translational science; sources of funding for research programs in the biomedical, sociobehavioral, and clinical sciences; and the recruitment and retention of faculty members with the appropriate skill sets for long-term success in research-focused academic careers.

	3:00-3:30 p.m.	Break
	3:30-5:00 p.m.	Management of Patient Care Service and Clinical Outreach

Department chairs and academic administrators in colleges and schools of the health professions must navigate through multiple complex organizations, including the universities in which they are housed, the medical centers and systems with which they are affiliated, and the communities in which they reside. The responsibility for clinical outreach often falls to department chairs. This session will explore opportunities to advance the missions of the academic institution through strong community partnerships. Examples of initiatives, including service-learning programs, partnerships with health systems for clinical education, and community-based participatory research will be discussed.

5:00 p.m

Adjourn

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	7:45-8:30 a.m.	Breakfast
	8:30-10:00 a.m.	Managing Key Relationships

Finding themselves in the middle of a management hierarchy within an institution, department chairs and academic administrators must develop working relationships with many individuals and groups within and outside the college or school. In this session, participants will identify these individuals and groups, the type of relationship they have and would like to have, and the desired outcome from constructive engagement with them.

	10:00-10:30 a.m.	Break
	10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.	Personnel Management: Faculty Career Life Cycle

Participants will examine and discuss common experiences of faculty across the health professions. Strategies that assist faculty to sustain vitality throughout their careers will be discussed. A Life Cycle Model for career management will be presented and discussion will focus on administering faculty support services effectively and efficiently.

	12:30-1:30 p.m.	Lunch
	1:30-3:30 p.m.	Personnel Management: Assessing Faculty Performance

A major responsibility of department chairs and academic administrators is the assessment of faculty performance in the form of periodic, often annual, reviews, as well as the more extensive promotion and tenure reviews. Principles of assessment will be presented followed by examples of their application in the evaluation of faculty productivity in scholarship, research, teaching, clinical service, and organizational and/or professional service. Specific cases will be used to illustrate situations in which positive evaluations were made as well as those in which negative evaluations were made. Role-play activities will be used to demonstrate strategies to manage difficult conversations with faculty members, as well as strategies for handling difficult faculty members, such as non- and under-performers, those that exhibit passive-aggressive behaviors, and those who engage in unprofessional behavior.

	3:30-4:00 p.m.	Break
	4:00-5:00 p.m.	Personnel Management: Staff and Other Support Personnel

This session will focus on strategies for making successful hires of staff and other support personnel, including behavioral interviewing and legal do’s and don’ts. Common services provided by university human resources departments will be reviewed.

5:00 p.m

Adjourn

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	7:45-8:30 a.m.	Breakfast
	8:30-10:00 a.m.	Legal issues in the Workplace

An understanding of the legal principles and issues impacting on educational institutions is an ongoing responsibility of academic leaders. Such issues range from employer/employee interactions, substance abuse, student and faculty rights, harassment, research conduct, and patient confidentiality. A brief overview of legal principles will provide the foundation for case-based sessions. Participants will consider a number of problems involving legal issues and consider a variety of strategies in approaching such problems in this three-part session.

	10:00-10:30 a.m.	Break
	10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.	Legal Issues in the Instructional/Educational Environment
	12:00-1:00 p.m.	Lunch
	1:00-3:00 p.m.	Legal Issues in the Conduct of Research and Provision of Patient Care
	3:00-3:30 p.m.	Break
	3:30-5:00 p.m.	Budgeting and Resource Management

This session will introduce the basics of finance and accounting for the academic administrator, including revenue sources, salary and fringe benefit analyses, and management of indirect costs, so that he or she will be better able to analyze budgets and communicate with the chief financial officer. Discussion will address the linkage between strategic planning, budgeting, and resource allocation.

5:00 p.m.

Adjourn

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	7:45-8:30 a.m.	Breakfast
	8:30-9:45 a.m.	Personal Career Goals and Advancement

Not only are academic administrators charged with facilitating the professional development and success of faculty members within their departments, they must also continue to engage in effective personal and professional development. In a facilitated dialogue, learn how peers have made decisions about continuing a clinical service or active laboratory or have strategically engaged in scholarly and leadership activities to further build their portfolio as an academic administrator. In a guided exercise, participants will examine their work contributions and write personal statements about their work purpose.

	9:45-10:15 a.m.	Break
	10:15-11:40 p.m.	Mentors, colleagues, and friends

Participants will engage in a review of career planning strategies and discuss the importance of professional and social networks, including mentors and peers, to career satisfaction and advancement. In a guided exercise, participants will draft three short-term goals for improving the quality of their work lives.

	11:40 a.m.-12:00 p.m.	Wrap up
	12:00 p.m.	Adjourn

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Program Content

I. Academic Management

A. Toolkit

B. Personnel Management

C. Program Management

II. Key Relationships (managing up and out)

A. Dean

B. College or school executive committee

C. Department or division executive committee

D. Academic health center leaders

E. Medical center and other patient care environment leaders

F. Community agencies and practitioners (adjunct faculty)

G. Grants manager/office of research

H. Institutional review board and research conduct office

I. Student affairs personnel

III. Personal and Professional Development

A. Career goals

B. Balancing your development with your responsibilities for others (e.g., keep a lab? keep a service?)

C. Documenting productivity and contributions

D. Time management

E. Mentors, colleagues, and friends

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